I really need to get back to productive tasks as Reinhard suggested.
However, just to reassure those who are concerned about a lack of
redundancy in BIOSCI - I want to give our BIOSCI colleagues at SERC
Daresbury in the U.K. a pat on the back for their unsung work. Alan
Bleasby and colleagues are working along side us every day. Most of
the posts unfortunately seem to forget that they are carrying their
part of this effort on the other side of the pond. We have always
planned every move on BIOSCI with some level of redundancy built in
and will continue to do so.
Everyone should rest assured that if California were to fall into the
Pacific Ocean tomorrow, the Daresbury crew would assume responsibility
for the entire operation and the reverse would occur if the Spanish
Armada suddenly reappeared from the depths of the seas 8-). Steps
would then be taken to find a suitable replacement site instead of
distributing the lists around the world.
As to the long term support of e-mail, we will continue to monitor the
situation closely. Right now, close to 60% of the respondents to the
last survey (Oct. 92) were already using news. We don't want to leave
anyone in the lurch, but on the other hand we don't want to encourage
people to persist with comfortable old habits. This unfortunately
creates a certain amount of dynamic tension which I don't think should
be resolved currently.
I would also like to remind everyone that the Daresbury group and our
group is charged with the task of administering the system. I do not
bullheadedly impose my will singlehandedly on my BIOSCI colleagues.
We have both biologists and skilled systems people working at both
sites. We talk with each other frequently and would like to believe
that we know what we are doing, but we have always been open to
constructive suggestions, believe it or not. The final decision on
administratve matters should rightfully fall to the people that have
to do the work, however. The voting mechanism was designed to select
the topics for the newsgroups; it was not designed to tell Daresbury
and us how to do the administrative part of our jobs. If, as a result
of a groundswell of mail, it became apparent that people were unhappy
with how we were performing, then we would certainly change to better
serve the community. To date, I have received very little indication
that there is widespread unhappiness with BIOSCI; in fact I get mostly
letters of support and thanks from all over the globe.
Sincerely,
Dave "lightening rod" Kristofferson
BIOSCI/bionet Manager
kristoff at net.bio.net